Thelema's lively, all admire, Her charms, but she's too full of fire; Impatience ever racks her breast, Her heart a stranger is to rest. A jocund youth of bulky size; This nymph beheld with tender eyes, From hers his humor differed quite, Black does not differ more from white. (Voltaire)

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I've recently been railing against the idea that Witchcraft is low magic. It keeps popping up from various magical orders (who are of course "high magic" practitioners). The lates group to join this bandwagon in the UK are the Druids.

People like Phillip Carr-Gomm (head of the Order of Bards Ovates & Druids) are saying things in print like "Witchcraft was what those people who couldn't make it as Druids practiced" and "Wiccans worship only the reflected light whereas Druids worship the True Light (sounds like One True God to me!), many Wiccans when they realize this start to train as Druids"(*).

My understanding of "high magic", is those practices where the participants try to become one with the higher planes, e.g., to meet their "Holy Guardian Angel" or to look upon the face of "God", etc.

My understanding of "Low magic" is stuff like herblore, healing, finding lost pets and the like - valuable stuff BTW and many so called "high magicians" do these things.

But the "purpose" of Witchcraft as I understand it and have practiced it in the UK fits neither of these definitions.

I will try to illustrate further.

The Gnostic Mass is probably the most long winded version of "Cakes & Wine" possible without requiring the participants be cathiterized. The form of the GM for those who don't know, is roughly - the temple is opened, the Goddess is invoked, the God is invoked, their essences are united and the cakes and wine are eaten; the congregation take communion; the temple is closed. However, the Goddess and God are not brought into the temple, but rather the priestess and priest "attend upon the astral". Likewise the union of the essenses happens not on this plane but on the plane of the Goddess & God themselves. The purpose of the GM seems to be therefore for the priestess and priest to move up to the "higher" realms and for the congregation to watch and aspire to acts themselves.

The Cakes and Wine in Witchcraft however is NOT about the HPS & HP escaping to a higher plane at all. In this, the Goddess and God are called down into our plane that their blessings and presence flow out into the REAL WORLD. This cannot be called "low magic" by any but the ignorant or the deliberately offensive. But neither is it "high magic" as it is not an escape into "higher planes" (as betrays high magic's eastern origins) but a bringing of the higher powers (and lower too!) into this place and this time.

High Magic is like a rope trick where the participants scurry up and hopefully return as better beings. Witchcraft is like a lightening rod where the powers are drawn (safely) to Earth for the benefit of all. That's not low magic so what is it?